xv, 403 p. : 24 cm

Includes bibliographical references (p. [377]-388) and index

Introduction : ancient sport history -- Why sport history? -- Word games : conceptualizing sport and spectacle -- Challenges : evidence, chronology, and modernism -- Sports and spectacles as cultural performances -- Greece and Rome : positive and negative classicism -- Sports as spectacles, spectacles as sport -- 1. Origins and essences : early sport and spectacle -- Mesopotamian combat sports and running -- Egypt : from hunting to sporting pharaohs -- Royal hunts as a Near Eastern tradition -- States and sports, empires and spectacles -- 2. Late Bronze Age Minoans, Hittites, and Mycenaeans -- Minoan performances : rites, contests or spectacles? -- Hittite contests? -- Mycenaean contests? -- A sporting Mediterranean world -- 3. Sport in Homer : contests, prizes, and honor -- Funeral games for Patroklos : prizes and reconciliation -- The Odyssey : sport and returning home -- Epic sport as spectacle --

4. Archaic Greece : athletics in an age of change -- Factors in the growth of athletics -- Nudity, democracy, and Eros -- Funeral games and city-state prizes -- The coming of age of Greek sport -- 5. In search of the Ancient Olympics -- The Olympics of illusion and allusion -- Modern myths and invented traditions -- The quagmire of Olympic origins : explanations and excavations -- 6. Ancient Olympia and its games -- The physical context : sanctuary and facilities -- The Olympic festival : operation and administration -- The program of contests -- Olympia and spectacle : politics, problems, and performances -- 7. Panhellenic sacred crown games -- Pythian games -- Isthmian games -- Nemean games -- Panhellenic variations and more -- 8. Athens : city of contests and prizes -- The Panathenaic games : sacred and civic athletics -- Other athletic festivals -- Athletic facilities -- Politics, patronage, and sport -- Athenian athletes and athletes at Athens -- Critics and popular attitudes --

9. Spartan sport and physical education -- Physical education : building the body politic -- Spartan athletics -- Kyniska and spartan chariot racing at Olympia -- Not so strange Greeks -- 10. Greek athletes : myths, motives, and mobility -- Athletic stars and stories -- Pindar on victory and glory -- Athletes and social history -- Democratization and athletics -- 11. Females and Greek athletics -- Girls' races and the Heraia -- Women at the male Olympics? -- Virgin Olympic spectators? -- 12. Macedon and Hellenistic sport and spectacle -- Philip II : Proclaiming Greekness through games -- Alexander the Great : becoming Near Eastern through spectacles -- Hellenistic sport and spectacle -- The Hellenistic model -- 13. The Roman republic : festivals, celebrations, and games -- Etruscan sport and spectacle : Greek gifts and Roman roots? -- Roman festivals and entertainments -- Chariot racing at Rome -- Triumphs : spectacles of military victory -- Hunts and beasts : conquests and games -- Gladiators : rites and combats -- Romans and Greek sport -- Roman-Hellenistic spectacular discourse --

14. Late republic and Augustus : spectacles, politics, and empire -- The meaning of gladiatorial combat : infamy and virtue -- Sulla, Pompey, and Caesar : magnificence and munificence -- Augustus : unification and imperial rule through shows -- 15. Spectacle, sport, and the Roman Empire -- Emperors, spectacles, and scandals -- Days at the track : chariot racing -- Imperial triumphs -- Gladiators, arenas, and empire -- Beast hunts : nature and empire -- Spectacular executions : beasts, criminals, and social order -- Greek games in the Roman Empire -- Assimilation and accommodation -- Conclusion : ancient sport and spectacle

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